The Charges Of The Light Brigade

It is no secret that Debbie Stabenow isn’t going to win the Senate spelling bee, but even by a low bar standard, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to attack a Michigan company for outsourcing jobs when it hasn’t outsourced any jobs.

A Michigan company has asked U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow to retract her statements that it outsourced jobs overseas.

Jackson National Life Insurance Co. sent a letter to Stabenow last week asking her to apologize for a campaign TV commercial and her public comments related to the company. Stabenow, a Democrat up for re-election Nov. 7, has said the company outsourced jobs to India and China.

Jackson National says that is not true. But the Stabenow campaign stood by its statements Saturday.

The company employs 1,300 in Michigan, approximately 300 of them in recent years. Stabenow has targeted the company because her opponent Republican Mike Bouchard has been on one of the company’s boards.

“I am writing you to set the record straight, and to formally request that you publicly retract your claim that Jackson National Life Insurance Company has outsourced jobs to China, India or to any other foreign country,” company president Clark Manning Jr. wrote to Stabenow. “Also, I believe our associates are owed an apology for falsely denigrating the excellent organization they have worked to create.”

Ford is reeling. Chrysler may have the worst situation of all, with an inventory of non-fleet vehicles reaching perhaps a 120 0r 130 day supply. Michigan has a serious one-state recession on, and Senator Stabenow thinks it is a good thing to assail a job producing Michigan company.

Watch for Mike Bouchard –down by mid-single digits and closing fast– to put a lot of emphasis on Stabenow’s disdain for Michigan job generators.